I made a sweater in garter st, and wondering how to embroider on it . I don’t think I can do a duplicate st on garter st. What do you suggest?
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Great question. I had no idea but did find out there are those who do. I was thinking you could just use regular embroidery stitches being careful that nothing’s too tight. There are options depending on what sort of embroidery you’re hoping to do.
How To: Embroidery on Knits | Brooklyn Tweed
Learn To Use Inlay Embroidery in Garter Stitch - Zollie Knitting
I think all the links work but letting you explore what’s out there seems like a good idea to me. That’s why I didn’t do more, just linked to my search results.
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As GG has mentioned, you can use regular embroidery stitches and motifs onto the knit fabric, depending what kind of motif or stripe or pattern you want to put on you can look for regular embroidery of those things and translate onto the knit fabric, just work jver the garter ridges.
You can also crochet motifs, swirls, or stripes through the fabric, here’s an example
https://gemmaathome.co.uk/bridgerton-house-baby-blanket-3-adding-the-surface-crochet-vines/
You can make a separate motif in knitting or crochet and add it on top of the surface of your knitting. Basic shapes like spares and circles, hearts, Xmas tree, truck, house, flower etc and sew it into the fabric.
If there is a particular motif or pattern you had in mind we could possibly help with something more specific. Embellished knits are great, so personal and it adds great design detail and an extra layer of fabulousness!
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Surface crochet could be just the thing! Why didn’t I think of that? 
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That’s why it’s great to have a forum full of people, lots of different ideas and experiences.
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Thank you to everyone for suggestions! I actually was thinking of knitting a small truck, separately, and sewing it onto the back of this sweater. I need a knitting pattern for a truck , or a car , or something for a baby boy. Can you help me with this?
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There are more patterns for crochet aplique motifs than there are for knitted ones but perhaps you dot fancy crochet. Even so, looking at some images for crochet can help with inspiration to design your own in knitting, a truck can be as simple as a rectangle, a square and a couple of circles…how much detail you want would add a little more challenge, for instance decreasing on one edge to make a slanted front cab windscreen rather than a square cab. A row or two of a different stitch can add a great detail, or a 1 or 2 row stripe in the truck. Lots of possibilities.
Here’s a pattern for a scarf and obviously you wouldn’t need to make the whole scarf but it would be great for a shorter truck.
https://www.lovecrafts.com/en-gb/p/childs-truck-scarf-knitting-epattern-knitting-pattern-by-frugal-knitting-haus
If you want to try some basic shapes plus wheels, here’s a pattern for circles
Here’s a train which would be lovely
https://www.lovecrafts.com/en-gb/p/chug-a-long-train-scarf-knitting-pattern-by-frugal-knitting-haus
Some knitted cars here but I think too small unless you make a road full or a town map scene
If you do fancy crochet Google crochet applique motif and you’ll see a variety.
Hope this helps some.
Thank you so much for all the suggestions! I will definitely try this, especially helpful are the dots for wheels .
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Hope we get to see a pic!
I’m not done with this sweater, but , this is the back of it . I made a truck to stitch on the back . I need honest opinions of how it looks . I wanted to make a little window on the yellow section, but I need some ideas .
Or is there anything else I should do with the truck ? I was thinking of a little chain sT for steam coming out from the top of the yellow section ?
Adorable! You could duplicate stitch the window on the cab and if you want to go over the top, the recipients initials or name on the trailer. I love the look as is anyway.
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It’s a gift So I need to be sure you think it’s ok . So, how do I do a duplicate st on top of garter st ? That’s my problem .
I watched a video on duplicate st on garter st. I don’t think it looks that great .
It’s not as neat looking as on stockinette but it’ll work for a small area, say 2sts x 2sts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfEpyK31A5o
See especially 4:40min in the video.
An alternative is the surface crochet that Creations showed in post #3 above. That will work as well.
I’m going to try the surface crochet to make the letter “B”. I think that would look the best . Thank you so much I’ll be back!
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It’s fabulous!
You made it so nicely and very quickly too!
You can just ‘sew’ onto the fabric, here’s a video example
With this you can go straight into or onto the cab to make the window. It doesn’t need to be duplicate stitch you can just make straight lines, either the window outline or a solid window with lines in parallel.
Here’s another example, scroll down to a swatch of grey whih has green yarn woven into the bumps on a garter stutch panel (there are stockinette column either side, ignore those), you could do this for the window or any other features.
https://www.interweave.com/article/knitting/embroidering-on-knits-embellishment-techniques/
I was trying to re-find a video I saw the other day, it was weaving on the surface of garter stitch to make a dishcloth in a gingham checkered pattern and the technique would work for the window or other bits, I’ll keep looking. It’s sort of similar but different to the last link of the green on grey sewing.
Thanks so much ! I actually knitted a tiny window. It looks ok, so now I’d like to make the letter “B”, on the main part of the truck.
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I suspect it would be easier to crochet the letter than to knit it. Although there’s this…I suspect they’re too large, but you could remove rows/stitches?
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